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Photo: Courtesy Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., Bequest of Dr. Benjamin A. Hewitt, B.A. 1943, Ph.D. 1952, 1983.96
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Card table

Object number

RIF3409

Maker

Maker Unknown
Retailer George Shipley, American, active ca. 1789 - 1803

Dimensions

Closed: 28 7/16 × 36 × 17 13/16 in. (72.23 × 91.44 × 45.24 cm)

Date

1790–93

Current location

Yale University Art Gallery

Geography

Made in Providence, Rhode Island, Retailed in New York, New York
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Mahogany and mahogany veneer (primary); eastern white pine (frame rails and glue blocks); black cherry (hinged rail)

Marks

"A large assortment of / CABINET FURNITURE / of the newest Fashion at / G. Shipley's Manufacty. / No 161 Water Street / NEW YORK. / Mahogany for Sale. / Rollinson Sculp.t," printed onpaper label glued to inner rear rail behind fly leg

Inscriptions

"STINSON / 176727," written on adhesive label on underside of curved rail

Provenance

Private collection, Marlboro, Massachusetts, before 1970; sold to Carl W. Stinson, Inc., Auctioneers and Appraisers, Reading, Massachusetts, about 1970. Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, January 26–29, 1977, lot 1067; sold to Dr. Benjamin A. Hewitt, New Haven, Connecticut, 1977; given to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, 1983

Associated names

Carl W. Stinson Inc. Auctioneers and Appraisers
Sotheby's
Benjamin Attmore Hewitt

Construction

The top?s lower leaf is screwed to the frame rails from inside. Two rosehead nails are driven at an angle into the top lamination, possibly to secure the top. Both leaves are solid boards. The back edge of the lower leaf has a tenon that fits into a reciprocal mortise on the hinged leaf?s inside edge when the top is opened. The curved front rail is composed of three horizontal laminates and is veneered. The two front legs are fitted over the rail, and possibly also tenoned into it from below. The curved rail?s right end is dovetailed to the inner rear rail, which is nailed flush to the fixed part of the hinged rail. Two rounded blocks are glued into the rear corners. The fixed part of the hinged rail is tenoned into the left rear leg. A finger joint connects it to the hinged rail, which is tenoned into the hinged leg. The hinged leg?s upper end is cut out to overlap the right rear corner of the frame when closed. The left rear leg has a similar cutout that is glued over the left end of the curved rail. Source: David L. Barquist, American Tables and Looking Glasses in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University, (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 208?209.

Notes

Some Federal card tables made in Rhode Island feature bookend inlays at the tops of the legs with segmented icicles below. See the related examples below.

See also

Bibliography

Benjamin Attmore Hewitt, Patricia E. Kane, and Gerald W. R. Ward, The Work of Many Hands: Card Tables in Federal America, 1790–1820, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1982), 150–151, no. 32, ill.
David L. Barquist, Elisabeth Donaghy Garrett, and Gerald W. R. Ward, American Tables and Looking Glasses in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 208–210, no. 107, ill.
Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, Fine Americana, sale cat. (January 26–29, 1977), lot 1067, ill.
Patricia E. Kane et al., Art and Industry in Early America: Rhode Island Furniture, 1650–1830, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2016), 421n5.